We are dog sitting for my neighbors friends dog. Truthfully, she is the dog from h%*#. She is around 3 years old and very alpha. And stubborn. And has horrible seperation anxiety and wants to bite the heads off my dogs. Except Paige. She loves Paige.
I am struggling with her going to the bathroom in the house. I have resorted to crating her. Let me tell you, this dog has gone 15 hours without going to the bathroom! When I do take her outside, she will just stand there and stare at me. She will not move or go potty. I feel like I have tried everything. I have stayed outside with her for up to 40 min. Walking her around. Turning my back on her. Ignorning her. Encouraging her. She refuses to go. So I will put her back in the crate and try again about an hour later. I did this for 2 straight days with her, and that's when she went 15 hours without going. This can't be healthy.
She will pee in the house with no warning. Poop too. I have her blocked in the diningroom with an xpen. She has access to the doggy door at all times, which she has not used once in the almost 2 weeks I have had her. She likes to wait until I step out of the room to go potty. And this will be after I have taken her out multiple times and she won't go outside (so I assume she doesnt have to go).
She will also potty in her crate, I have even seen her go into the crate to purposly go potty there!!
She goes home at the end of the week. I just wonder if anyone has any magical advice I can give her owner. I know she is at her wits end too~~
I have never in my life known such a stubborn dog.

Katiewww.MopTopHavanese.com
Paws.....and reflect on what life has given you~

Katie,
Alot can depend on where the dog came from and past experiences embedded in the dogs brain. Is it possible that in the beginning as a puppy wasn't trained consistently or came from a shelter or pet store?

We had one!! My daughter's boyfriend bought her a puppy one time years ago from a pet store. I did 'everything' and I don't think I remember her "ever" going potty outside. The only thing I could do was put her in a x-pen with the floor covered in pads ~ which was not right to me. I don't think her feet had ever touched grass before we got her and she had no idea she was suppose to go outside. I cried many tears over that cute little thing. I finally had a freind that wanted her. She had hardwood floors and she put down carpet samples in different area for her to use with plastic under them. She just changed them out weekly.

I just finally had to admit to myself that she was just like me. Nobody could train me to go out in the middle of my backyard either.

She actually came from a breeder in my area.
I don't know alot about the dogs past, but I do know her owner traveled alot in her first year and she was boarded alot. I imagine that has alot to do with it.
But I also know her owner has struggled alot with her since day one. She would call me practicly in tears because she wasn't acting like "the Havanese I saw at your house". (she came to visit my dogs a few years ago before she got one).
Having experienced this first hand, and the frustration that goes with it, I SO feel for those people that are having potty training issues with older dogs. I know how frustrating it can be to potty train a puppy, I have done it more times than I can count. But this is just different. I was really hoping that her spending a couple weeks here with me and my dogs would "help" her. But I am afraid it hasn't!
I just feel bad not having anything encouraging to tell her owner~ so sad!

Katiewww.MopTopHavanese.com
Paws.....and reflect on what life has given you~

Wow - she sounds like a real tough one!! As if you dont have enough on your hands! Are you able to just keep her outside for a while. Sit outside with her, and dont go in until you see her go? Maybe your dogs would like to all picnic outside!! I assume your weather is much better than ours here.

Indie did this at first. I could not believe how long she could hold it. I spent I don't know how many hours standing in the yard (in Arizona heat) waiting for her to do her business-and waiting, and waiting , and waiting! She still can hold it forever, but six months later, she is pretty reliable in the house. We take her out first thing in the morning, around 3:30, and at bedtime. She has learned to ring the bell to go out as well.
The only thing that worked for us was crating, and using an ex-pen, and giving her no other option but to go outside. We had to actually see her go outside because she would hold it and go in the house if she had a chance. Sorry, it was definitely not a quick fix. And Indie came from a reputable breeder and had been housetrained before we got her. She is just one very stubborn girl.
I think part of the problem was our grass yard. She had been in a home with no grass. She still avoids the grass in our yard most of the time. Fortunately, Indie is an absolute sweetheart of a girl and we made it through the very frustrating housetraining trouble because we could see what a great dog she was going to be when we did get that solved.

I was watching a dog for a friend who told me the dog was potty trained. I was going thru the same thing, I would take the dog outside and it wouldn't potty. When I couldn't watch her, I would put her in the xpen and the **** thing would potty. She kept doing this and DH said NEVER AGAIN! So my friend calls and I tell her what is going on cause I thought I might as well be honest so she doesnt ask me to watch the dog. She then reminds me, she was a show dog and a special for a few years and she was always pottied in an xpen cause she was in full coat <BG> So every time I put her in the xpen that is when she thought she was suppose to potty- DOH! The next few days were fine of course!

We had to keep a Bichon on short notice in an emergency for a couple who lives near us. Pam came up with the idea to fold down an expen with a litter box in it so that there was nowhere else for the dog to sit or lie down even unless it was in the box. I made the litter box from some Sterilite (Walmart plastic container) that we had lying around.

She went in our living room just like we do for puppies. We did it just like we do for puppies and caught her when she needed to "go", said the command,"go potty", praised her and let her out immediately after success. It worked pretty quickly.

We still didn't trust her with free range around the house but she stayed in a regular expen setup and we let her out to play after
"pottying in the box."

Her owners said she was "better" after they came back but we aren't exactly sure what that means. They had been letting her get away with it for years so I imagine she will go right back to her old ways.

If they aren't trained to it to start with they can be a real pain to retrain.

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